Journal article reporting standards for qualitative primary, qualitative meta-analytic, and mixed methods research in psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board task force report.

Abstract

The American Psychological Association Publications and Communications Board Working Group on Journal Article Reporting Standards for Qualitative Research (JARS–Qual Working Group) was charged with examining the state of journal article reporting standards as they applied to qualitative research and with generating recommendations for standards that would be appropriate for a wide range of methods within the discipline of psychology. These standards describe what should be included in a research report to enable and facilitate the review process. This publication marks a historical moment—the first inclusion of qualitative research in APA Style, which is the basis of both the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 2010) and APA Style CENTRAL, an online program to support APA Style. In addition to the general JARS–Qual guidelines, the Working Group has developed standards for both qualitative meta-analysis and mixed methods research. The reporting standards were developed for psychological qualitative research but may hold utility for a broad range of social sciences. They honor a range of qualitative traditions, methods, and reporting styles. The Working Group was composed of a group of researchers with backgrounds in varying methods, research topics, and approaches to inquiry. In this article, they present these standards and their rationale, and they detail the ways that the standards differ from the quantitative research reporting standards. They describe how the standards can be used by authors in the process of writing qualitative research for submission as well as by reviewers and editors in the process of reviewing research.

Enhancing the quality and transparency of qualitative research methods in health psychology

“…The SQIP team describe the APA-JARS standards they have developed for qualitative research in an accessible and well-balanced account of what is required to assess the quality of qualitative research (Levitt et al, 2018). The SQIP team describe the APA-JARS standards they have developed for qualitative research in an accessible and well-balanced account of what is required to assess the quality of qualitative research (Levitt et al, 2018).…”

Rigor, reproducibility, and novel methodological approaches to eating disorders research

“…A number of efforts have begun to reduce the impact of these errors, including requirements initiated by the National Institutes of Health ( NIH ) that include formal efforts to limit biases in experimental design, data analysis, and increase the ability to independently reproduce and disseminate these findings via data archives and methodological transparency (NIH, ). The discourse about rigor and reproducibility has persisted among scientists from all disciplines (McNutt, ) and resulted in the development of journal and organizational guidelines/checklists to direct the scientific process (Appelbaum et al, ; Bolli, ; Levitt et al, ). Although these guidelines are diverse and focused on the scientific fields they serve, there are a few core components to them worthy of mention as an introduction to this collection.…”

Job Loss in a Group of Older Canadian Workers: Challenges in the Sustainable Labour Market Reintegration Process

“…By adding data from the interviews to the other 40 participants, the definitions of the nine sub-dimensions and their categories were reworked and fine-tuned using the "self-correcting process" [115] (p. 27). Two analysts divided the coding of the extracts; when difficult cases arose, they were arbitrated by a third analyst.…”

“…The analysis, inspired by L'Écuyer's method [113], was conducted in successive steps with an iterative approach [114], as recommended by the APA [115]. Three researchers worked together on the interview analysis using triangulation principles [116] and the "ethics of transparency" [115] (p. 29).…”